In between Wednesday and Friday

Hi! I am crazily trying to get all of my stuff in order before I head out this weekend to Goddess Weekend; where I will be vending and sitting in sunshine. Oh how I love the lovely sunshine. I thought I'd take a quick break from my crazy packing and list-checking to share with you a quick, thrifty, stash-busting, colorful craft.

Wind socks! I know. Crazy is the word of the day. Maybe it's because I live just south of the Windy City and Spring here is more about the wind changing (from the northerly-cold to the southerly-warm) than it is about the rain. Maybe it's because I'm drowning in my fabric stash. Maybe it's because I am addicted to color and shiny things. But, seriously. Look at them:

Colorful, cute, fun. Everything I like about...everything, really. 

Go gather your supplies: 

• An iron and ironing board
• Scissors
• Tacky glue
• Embroidery floss and ribbon
• Assorted fabric
• Mason jar lid ring (pop out the flat middle part)
• Bells
• Fusible webbing (I like WonderUnder because it has a paper backing. And if you are into any kind of fabric craft, go get some RIGHT NOW)
• Clothespins (not pictured) 4 per wind-sock

 First, plug in your iron and set it to HOT. While that warms up you can get out your fabrics.

Decide on what color you want your top to be. Wrap the ring inside the fabric and measure where the ends would meet. Then cut your fabric to that length and TWICE the height of the jar lid. (So if your lid is 1/2 inch tall, and 6 inches around, your fabric would be 6 inches long and 1 inch wide)

Then iron the fusible webbing to the underside of your fabric. (Each brand of webbing has it's own directions on how long this takes. Ask the nice people at the fabric store if you're unsure)

Crease it down the middle and cut two angled slits in your fabric. This will allow the fabric to sit flat when you fold it inside the jar lid. 

Get out your other fabrics and ribbon. Cut strips of  fabric and ribbon in various lengths. You'll want to have enough to overlap onto your top fabric.

Peel the paper backing off of your top fabric and arrange your fabric and ribbon strips onto the half of the fabric that is intact.

If your ribbon is polyester, lay a strip of fabric across the top so you don't melt the ribbon and get it stuck on your iron. Iron the strips onto the top fabric. REMEMBER THAT THE TOP HALF HAS FUSIBLE WEBBING STILL ON IT. Don't stick your iron on there, or you'll be cleaning gunk off of it...if you do get gunk on it, get out 2-3 paper towels and lay them on top of each other. Then rub your iron back and forth vigorously. Fold your paper towels in half and repeat. It takes about 4 fold-and-rubs before your iron will be de-gunked. (Not that I know from experience, or anything...ahem)

Once all of your strips are stuck to the top piece, lay a bead of tacky glue the length of the fabric. (I forgot to take a picture with the original one--haha, oops!)

This is what it looks like rolled up. Have the flat edge of the jar lid in the middle of your fabric...

Because we're going to put a bead of glue on it. And then fold down the fabric to the middle.

And then flip the whole thing over, so you can see the exposed metal rim inside.

Put some glue in there too. Press the fabric down into the glue, and hold the whole thing together with clothespins until the glue dries.

While that's drying, you can go ahead and tie the bells on to the ribbons.

If your knot-tying skills aren't super-awesome, you can put a drop of glue onto the knot.

After all your glue is dry, tie your embroidery floss onto the rim to hang it. I recommend three pieces of floss at 16" each. Tie one end to the rim, and then knot your three loose ends together and hang from that knot.

Have a wonderful sunshine-filled weekend! 

Happy Spring!

Hidee! I have a tutorial up over here on how to make the upcyled paper nest you see above.

I decided a while back that Fridays would be Photo Fridays and I got this amazing new camera for Christmas (thanks, Mom and Dad!) and I have found myself too intimidated by the camera to use it every day. And that's ridiculous, right? It's a tool. It's made to be used. 

Next week, the kids are on spring break, and I am going to get out that camera and use it. I'm going to spend a whole DAY taking photos at one hour intervals. I'm going to use ALL the settings and try adjusting manually the shutter speed and aperture. I'm going to use that camera and I'm going to get over my trepidations. 

Also, I'm going to work on some projects and meet some deadlines and see about getting a part-time gig for a regular cash flow. 

Photo Friday: Four-Gift Round Up

Tomorrow is the very first day of December! Don't panic. I have rounded up four tutorials of things you can make over a weekend.

Tutu Tutorial! This was way easy, and completely adaptable to the Fancy Pants on your list. Instead of buying elastic, I used the waistband from a pair of pants that she had blown the knees out of.

Gilded Jars! You can do old jam jars OR buy a six pack of votive candles and gild those.

Peg People! These guys are Elemental Peg People, but you could just as easily do Rainbow Peg People for the preschooler on your list.

Felt Slippers! I had a few wool sweaters with holes that were beyond repair, so I felted them in the washing machine before following Martha's tutorial. I have found the best way to felt sweaters is to throw them in with a bunch of towels, wash everything on HOT and HEAVY DUTY. It took 3 rounds to go from beloved sweater to felt for slippers. I wear a Medium/Size 8 and that was enough to make 2 children's sized sweaters.

Next week is ALL ABOUT THE GIFTIES! Tune in for more tutorials and great ideas.
Have a happy, crafty weekend!

Upcycled Casablanca Gilded Jars

Does it snow in Casablanca? I have no idea. If you know, please enlighten me. These jars were inspired by a whole bunch of things: Moroccan lanterns, painting on glass, and Peaches' gilded jam jars. 

There are a few important lessons that I learned doing this project. 

First: SIMPLE DESIGNS ARE YOUR FRIEND. Keeping it simple really is the key to success here. Gold leaf is super thin and will adhere to things via the magic of static. Which is why the front lantern looks great and the back looks (to quote my five year old) like a haunted house.

  Second: Mixing food color and ModPodge doesn't give you super-awesome-vibrant colors. I'm going to have to actually spring for actual glass paint if I want jewel tones (so much for being thrifty) 

Third: Gold leaf sealer is stinky. Open a window. 

Got all that? Ready to make some gorgeous candle holders? 

Supplies 

A clean, empty jar

Paint brushes (a big flat one, and a soft one)

A bowl for mixing glass paint

ModPodge

Food coloring

Rinse-water jar (I add a drop of dish soap to keep the ModPodge from settling in the brush)

Gold leaf, gold leaf adhesive, gold leaf sealer (Got mine at Michael's)

Step one: Mix up your glass paint. I went with green because I like green and gold together. I used Lucy's recipe of 1tsp ModPodge, 1.5 tsp water, 3 drops of food coloring. 

Step two: Paint the inside of your jar.

Step three: Set aside to dry. I did mine upside down because I didn't want a big pile of glue & food color at the bottom of my jar. How great is that green? I loved it. Sadly, it was not to stay. 

Step Four: While you wait for your paint to dry, Google Image Search Moroccan Lanterns, and come up with some pattern ideas (Or just use mine). On the haunted house lantern, I was going for a design like the large one on the bottom of the right page.

Step five: Paint your patterns on the outside of the jar with gold leaf adhesive. REMEMBER: Simple works best! Let the adhesive dry according to the directions on the bottle.

Step six: Get out a sheet of gold leaf. (I like the stuff that's already stuck on a paper backing. It's easier to handle)

                          

Step seven: Apply the gold leaf to your jar. Rub the paper side to make sure the gold is sticking.

Tip: Use your soft brush to smooth out air bubbles and flatten out fly-away pieces of gold.

Step Eight: Seal your gold leaf according to the directions on the bottle.

This is what they will look like without a light inside. More sea-glass-meets-Casablanca, but still pretty. 

Have fun with it. Gold leaf is great stuff. It is an easy way to add bling to just about anything, it's inexpensive, and it makes candle light look a million times better.